Information Priority Based Multicast Routing in MANETs

The routing efficiency in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) suffers from frequent battery drains, mobility and large variation of received signal strength. Thus, nodes and links in MANETs become more vulnerable and unstable. Multicast routing in MANETs for group communication requires establishment of reliable links between neighbouring nodes called as reliability pair beginning from the source and extending such reliability pairs enroute to the destination. If there are multiple paths from source to every multicast destination, the reliability of source information may be enhanced by sending higher priority information on higher priority path. In this paper, we propose a scheme of Information Priority based Multicast Routing in MANETs using multiple paths (IPMRM). IPMRM operates in following phases. (1) Reliability pair factor computation based on node power level, received differential signal strength between the nodes and mobility. (2) Pruning neighbor nodes that have reliability pair factor lesser than a threshold. (3) Finding multicast mesh routes with multiple paths to a destination using request and reply packets. (4) Priority assignment to multiple paths based on minimum value of reliability pair factor of a path and information transfer from source to multicast destination. (4) Route maintenance against link failures. The simulation results for packet delivery ratio and control overhead demonstrate better performance of IPMRM over On Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP) and Enhanced ODMRP (EODMRP)